


You'll Miss Them When They're Gone From Your Life

by SecondStarOnTheLeft



Series: The Moment You Doubt Whether You Can Fly [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-30
Updated: 2013-12-30
Packaged: 2018-01-06 16:34:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1109079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondStarOnTheLeft/pseuds/SecondStarOnTheLeft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stannis is twenty-three when his father goes missing and his mother resigns her post as headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to find him.</p><p>Stannis is twenty-four when their bodies are found on at Dover, washed up after a storm that could only have been magical in origin, if only because the Muggle weather predictors are baffled by its appearance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You'll Miss Them When They're Gone From Your Life

Nobody remembers this, because there were other, bigger, more important names involved, but Steffon Baratheon was Aerys Targaryen's friend at school, too.

Stannis' father was a Ravenclaw, much like Stannis himself (Robert and Renly are both Gryffindors through-and-through, and Mum seemed to find them easier to puzzle out, but Stannis has always been closer to his father and knew his mother loved him, so he didn't really mind), but he ran with a strange, mixed-together crowd. They had been thrown together by then-Headmaster Professor Jahaerys Targaryen (Targaryens everywhere you turn, damn it all), who collected the best and brightest.

Aerys Targaryen, his grandson. Cassana Estermont. Tywin Lannister. Hoster Tully. Ariella Martell. Joanna Lannister. Rickard Stark. Jon Arryn. Minisa Whent. 

Steffon Baratheon was often forgotten because he, unlike his peers and friends, had not reached the lofty heights of notoriety in any way. He was a brilliant man, a  _statesman,_ and he took advantage of the long absences necessitated by his wife's career to pursue his own, as the Ministry's ambassador to wherever the damn hell he was needed most - America, usually - until his sons were born.

Robert always complained that Dad was boring. Stannis knew different. Stannis knew  _better._

Dad was the one who defended Stannis when he became overwhelmed by Robert and Renly, when Mum worried about him - Dad understood. He got overwhelmed too, sometimes, when he was younger, he'd told Stannis all about it, and he helped Stannis learn how to not get overwhelmed without grinding his teeth.

That's how Stannis managed to make friends at Hogwarts. He's sure of it.

 

* * *

 

Stannis received word of his father's disappearance in the middle of a party. It was for the birth of Davos'... One of Davos' sons (he was going to end up with magic seven, Stannis was sure of it and Melisandre had Seen something about it, so it  _would_ happen), and everyone was rascally drunk except for Stannis, more because he loathed the taste of anything alcoholic than anything, and poor Marya.

Even the bloody owl seemed to be drunk by the time Stannis wrestled the letter off it, and he ran out as soon as he could, forced to stop long enough to kiss Davos just to shut his proud-fatherin up, much to everyone's amusement, because Dad's entire entourage had gone missing somewhere over the Atlantic on their way home - a force of  _thirteen_ Aurors and Dad, a more than capable duelist in his own right, completely disappeared.

Stannis' broom was as plain and practical and fast as they came, a brand new Cleansweep Two, and it still wasn't fast enough for him as he flew through rain to Hogwarts. Mum was there, Renly was there, if Robert had even a tiny fragment of sense he'd be there too, and soon, and besides.

As much as Dover, Hogwarts was  _home._

 

* * *

 

Robert caused a stir, of course - he was twenty-six, the best Beater in the country by a longshot, captain of the national team (about to lead them to World Cup glory, thanks to Cersei Lannister) and supposedly incredibly attractive. Stannis was slightly taller than him, but rangey and angular where Robert was simply massive, and he always felt small next to his brother.

He'd never felt smaller than standing here in Mum's office, leaning back against the wall as Robert charged up and down and  _raged,_ flailing arms and red face and everything. Mum was sitting very quietly behind her desk - she was only ever quiet when she was panicking - and Tywin Lannister was standing at her right shoulder. Stannis didn't much like Professor Lannister, but he knew the school would be in good hands if Mum went through with her plan.

"I'm taking a leave of absence, Robert," she said, breaking through Robert's tantrum without even raising her voice. "You will continue playing Quidditch, keeping yourself firmly in the public eye as you have done since going professional, because that will act as a deterrent to anyone poorly inclined towards our family."

Robert made as if to argue, but Mum raised an eyebrow and he sat down on the steps without another word.

"You, Stannis," she said, "will return to Dover - Renly will be coming home for the holidays in a few weeks. He's invited friends to join him, and I have just now sent word to their parents with a warning that acceptance of his invitation may place his friends in danger. If they  _do_ still come, I need you there to protect them. Keep them safe, Stannis. Keep  _yourself_ safe."

She smiled over her shoulder to Professor Lannister, who was watching her with cool eyes.

"As for you, you insufferable old coot," she said. "You keep my seat warm until I get back, won't you? I'll tell Joanna if you get too attached."

 

* * *

 

Stannis loved Dover, not that he'd ever admit it out loud - he loved the sea, he loved the weather, he loved the cliffs and the seagulls and that it wasn't _that_ far across the Channel on his Cleansweep to Calais if he needed to get away for a while.

He didn't even really mind Renly's friends that much - there were only two of them, Beric from about eight or nine miles up the coast, and Benjen Stark who was Ned Stark's brother and therefore Robert's favourite of all Renly's friends. They seemed to spend most of their time pretending to duel in the orchard, which means that Stannis had lots and lots of time to coordinate all of his parents' enormous amounts of correspondance while they were away.

He refused to think of them as anything but  _away._

Renly gamely played along with being kept inside the walls of the estate - there was plenty of room for him to play, after all, the grounds were so big that he hadn't explored all of them yet so there was plenty to keep him and his friends occupied - and didn't mind in the slightest when he was told they couldn't go to any of Robert's matches. Renly didn't mind Quidditch, but he didn't eat, breathe and sleep it the way Robert and Dad did.

So they passed the summer in peace, and Renly went back to school and Stannis, obeying Mum's orders, continued with his Auror training and went out with Davos and Marya and Melisandre and her new girlfriend, Selyse, and he kept up her and Dad's correspondance and wrote to Renly and ran damage control for Robert.

And then, around Christmas, Mum's letters stopped coming.

 

* * *

 

 _"Professor Cassana Estermont, Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Order of Merlin, second class, has been offically declared missing following a seven month absence. Professor Estermont last year took a leave of absence from her post to search for her also missing husband, Ambassador Steffon Baratheon-_ "

Stannis flicked off the radio and sat down beside Renly on the windowseat.

"They're dead, aren't they?" Renly said, and Stannis wondered what it was to be fourteen and an orphan. He was fairly sure he would've gone mad without Mum and Dad when he was fourteen.

"It looks like it," Stannis said, not seeing the point in lying. Robert would have lied, made up something to sooth Renly, but Stannis was perfectly aware that Renly wasn't stupid, and that when he went back to school after Christmas everyone would be talking about Mum going missing officially. "We won't know for certain unless we get their bodies or they turn up alive, but... It does look like it, Renly. I'm sorry."

Robert would have hugged Renly. Stannis had never been good at things like that.

 

* * *

 

Stannis had never seen a storm like it.

Renly had never seen corpses like them. Renly had never seen corpses at all before, and Stannis wished more than anything that his little brother hadn't had to see their parents like that.

 

* * *

 

Stannis didn't speak at the funeral, and neither did Renly. Robert did, of course, crying his way through his speech, and so did Ariella Martell and Tywin Lannister, and Stannis thought it was kind of sad that Robert had clearly not known their parents as well as Minister Martell and Professor Lannister had.

Stannis' tie was blue and bronze. He had one just like it hanging on the back of his bedroom door in his flat in London, but this one had come out of tissue paper in the top drawer of the big dresser in the master bedroom in the house in Dover. 


End file.
